Sunday, March 11, 2012

2 posts?

2 posts in one week? Blogging isn't dead, its just comatose.

Spent a bit of cave time yesterday sorting some stuff out. The bike packing bike needs deployed soon. Very soon. Don't know how, where or what, but i need an overnighter....my sleep pattern may not, but i do. I need to see the sun come up with some camping coffee as i lie with a broken back in a bivvi/sleepbag cocoon.

Anyway. I was trying to fit some new style xt brakes to the bike packing bike. Once you get used to the exquisite lever feel, the old style ones wont do. The power is so good too. Anyhoo, problems!....firstly, the ultra short levers dont play too well with original Jones bars. So i had to pull the old ti ones off. By design or fate, who knows? but i had a set of the alu loop bars in the parts pile, so i filed the shim edges, lined everything up, smeared some loctite under the shim and torqued the stem bolts.

Then i went to bolt on the caliper and lever. Crap! no 180 front disc post (2 posts?) to IS adaptor. I clawed through the parts boxes and managed to put to gether an embarassment of all sizes from 140 rear to 203 front, but no 180 front. In the past i have filed down avid 185mm rotor adaptors, but in this instance i wanted the correct part.

A trip to the shop and bingo!....brake on.

Yeah the hose is too long, but with some of the new style soft bags mounted under the bars, you need a bit extra hose. I'll try it out, work out what i need and trim it later. As a side note, all you Jones owners, Porcelain Rocket are doing some sweet bags for Jones bikes....see here.

3 comments:

AdamM
said...

Wow, those are some sweet bags.

Wouldn't life be just that little bit easier if all disc brakes came in 140, 160, 180 and 200 mm sizes ONLY.

I love this bike Jon, it's probably still one of my favourites of yours. I want to build something similar. I have a hankering to ride some of the 'travelling stock routes' that cover NSW. Basically the routes people used to drive stock to/from market. They include camping areas at distances that stock could travel in a day, and all allowed to be used by cyclists (unlike much of the countryside and back country forests).